The Sushi Tales
by dnalalal
Summary: Jack learns something new about Angela and finds that it works to his advantage. Set during the summer between season 1 and season 2. Hodgela.
1. Table For Two

The Sushi Tales  
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Ship: Jack/Angela  
Spoilers: None. Set during the summer between season 1 and season 2  
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Part 1 - Table For Two  
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"There's that sushi place." Jack suggested.

The look Angela gave him was one she normally reserved for partially decomposed corpses.

"I don't eat sushi. I don't eat fish." Her tone was flat. Jack glanced up from the microscope.

"What? But you're-"

"Chinese. American born Chinese. American born half-Chinese. Sushi is Japanese." She tapped her foot impatiently and picked Jack's coat up from where he'd slung it over the railing.

"I was going to say that you're chic." He averted his gaze back to the microscope, "Isn't sushi nouveau chic now?"

"First, I'm bohemian. Second, are we looking at bugs or going for lunch? And please, stop saying chic."

Jack sat back and held his hands up.

"Oook, Miss Boho _Chic_. You're the one who can't decide on a restaurant, the only place left is that little Italian spot on the corner. We've been everywhere else within walking distance."

Angela opened her mouth to say something and then hesitated. She titled her head to the side and fingered the material of Jack's coat nervously.

"Hodgins.. That place is awfully.. quaint. And it has a certain.. atmosphere."

Jack gently pried his coat from her fingers and stood up, stepping closer to her.

"What, you don't like Italian now? Because I seem to recall a certain starving artist wolfing down a fair helping of fettuccine on Zack's birthday.."

Angela smacked his arm.

"I did no such thing. In fact, who was the one who ordered two desserts?!"

Jack grinned.

"Oh ho.. I may have _ordered_ two, but you ate the lion's share of that cherry pie!"

Angela's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open in protest.

"What!? You're fooling no one Jack Hodgins." She pointed a well-manicured finger at his nose.

"Hey babe, as long as I know the truth, you can believe what you want. Now.. Would you like wasabi with your sushi?"

Angela tried pouting a little, but Jack merely raised an eyebrow at her.

"Fine. Italian it is."

Jack smiled and nodded to himself. He took the stairs down from the platform in twos and held the lab door open for Angela, who skulked along behind.

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When they were seated Angela took in their secluded surroundings. The restaurant was small to begin with, but somehow they'd been tucked away into an alcove she'd never noticed before, although she'd been there many times before. It was her favourite after work date location: nice and close, and it had the perfect romantic ambience.

She looked over at Jack who was reading his menu, seemingly indifferent to the setting.

"Jack, did you ask for a corner table?"

"Why on Earth would I do that? You can barely read the menu it's so dark back here!" He made a comical effort to read by candlelight, holding his menu up close to the table centerpiece. His hand brushed across hers in the process and he looked up to meet Angela's startled gaze.

"Angela?"

She swallowed and blinked uselessly a few times before shaking her head and smiling with embarrassment.

"Sorry, it's just this place.. Very well decorated."

Jack stared at her a moment and then began to nod.

"Yeah... Let's order some wine."

Angela nodded emphatically.

"Yeah. Let's." He turned his attention to the nearest waiter, and Angela pulled her shaking hands down to her lap. She watched his profile as he spoke to the waiter, ordering a bottle of her favourite wine.

"That's what you like, right?" He confirmed, as the waiter left. Angela nodded her agreement and Jack smiled at her, his eyes crinkling a little in the corners. He lifted his menu, this time forgoing the special lighting techniques.

"So, let's see what they have to offer.."

Angela watched as he scanned over the page.

"Yes.. Let's see."


	2. Bait Breath

The Sushi Tales  
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Ship: Jack/Angela  
Spoilers: None. Set during the summer between season 1 and season 2  
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Part 2 - Baith Breath  
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Angela looked up from the sketch she was working on to see who was knocking at her office door. She smiled as Jack stuck his head into the room.

"Morning. How was the big date last night?" He waggled his eyebrows as he approached and placed the second cup of coffee he was holding onto the table in front of her. He settled into one of the chairs opposite.

"Aww. You brought me coffee and think you can trade that for juicy date gossip? How cute!" Angela picked up the warm drink and took a sip, making a show of savouring it.

Jack smiled easily.

"No. The coffee's because I told Lyle you thought he was cute and that I'd put in a good word for him. He promised me the parking spot beside Dr. Brennan's for two months. I figured my big ole baby blues could get the gossip on their own." He batted his eyelashes comically.

"Lyle? As in the security guard?"

Jack nodded, his eyes twinkling.

"Jack! He already insists on patting me down at least once a week!"

Jack shrugged, taking a sip of his coffee.

"I'll share the parking spot with you, we can rotate or something. Drink your coffee."

Angela slumped down into the couch with a groan, but did as she was told.

"So what'd you guys do on your date?"

"We went for sushi."

Jack sat up in the chair.

"You went for sushi?" He asked slowly.

"Yes." She deliberately drew out the syllable.

"You hate sushi."

"I know." Angela tried to hide the smile tugging at her lips. She glanced at him from beneath her lashes. He was looking confused, but it soon turned to a look of smug satisfaction.

"I would've loved to see the look on his face when you told him."

"I didn't tell him." She pulled her legs under herself, getting more comfortable. Jack's face fell.

"You ate raw fish for this guy?"

"No, no man is worth that. Even I have limits.. I went vegetarian."

"So I guess there's no second date in his future."

She smiled mischievously.

"I don't know.. he was pretty cute."

"He ate raw fish Angela, you hate that." Jack reminded, the frustration in his tone belying his emotions.

"Yeah, kissing him goodnight was pretty tough. But you should know Hodgins, the way to a girl's heart is not through her stomach." She took another sip of her coffee, hiding a smile behind the rim of the cup.

"No, apparently not. Didn't know bait breath was the new Chanel for men." Jack answered, his voice gaining a playful edge as he relaxed into the banter. Angela laughed.

"Oh hush."

"And raw fish. I mean, it's not easy to chew, gets stuck in the teeth sometimes." Angela made a face.

"That's gross. Do you have to be so descriptive?"

"The devil's in the details, baby. I'm just saying, when you kissed him you might have.. I mean, if you-" Jack waved his finger around his mouth vaguely and then finally settled on sticking his tongue out. Angela raised an eyebrow.

"Ok. Now you are just fishing for details."

"Fishing? Me? No, I don't think so.. but you should give your date a call, he might be out trying to catch his next dinner."

Angela nearly spit out her coffee. Her eyes widened and her whole face lit up in surprise.

"You are awful!!" She exclaimed, with a poorly suppressed giggle.

"I'm never going to be able to look at him now, not without imagining him in a pair of waders!" Despite covering her mouth with her hand it was evident through her eyes that she was smiling.

Jack laughed and mimed casting a fishing rod. Angela shook her head in mock disapproval and pointed at the door.

"You, out!"

"What, am I disrupting your work?" Jack teased, gesturing to the landscape drawing she'd abandoned earlier in the conversation, but he stood up nonetheless. Angela narrowed her eyes at him and flipped the sketchpad closed.

"I will be working.. As soon as I call the fisherman and cancel our next date."

Jack paused in the doorway.

"Really? I thought he was cute.." He intoned the last word with a girly falsetto.

Angela sighed.

"Not cute enough apparently. Only a certain kind of man can pull off hip waders." She paused a moment and then rolled her eyes and gently pushed Jack out of the doorway, her hand lingering a moment on his shoulder.

"There used to be a day when a few glasses of wine and an air of mystery were enough for me, now a guy needs to look good in hip waders. I think you owe me a sixty-forty split on that parking spot for this."

Jack grinned.

"You can have it. It's the least I can do for putting you off your date."

Angela shook her head in protest.

"Eighty-twenty. He wasn't that much fun anyway. We didn't have anything in common, but what can you do?" She shrugged, and let out an exasperated puff of air.

Jack gazed at her, tilting his head to the side. After a pause he reached out and gently knocked his knuckles against her chin.

"Chin up kid. There's plenty more animals in the zoo."

The corner of her mouth twitched.

"Really.. Animals in the zoo, eh?"

Jack nodded earnestly.

"Oh yeah, just crawling all over the place. Monkey's out of their cage getting into all kinds of trouble with the lions.." He paused. "I figured we'd had enough fish talk for one day."

She leaned her shoulder against the doorjamb and smiled at him, her eyes dancing with humour.

"Have a good day Jack."

He nodded and returned the smile.

"You too Ange." Jack gave a small wave over his shoulder as he wandered across the lab.

"I already am." She replied, softly, leaning her head against the doorframe and watching him walk away.


	3. Fishtastic

The Sushi Tales  
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Ship: Jack/Angela  
Spoilers: None. Set during the summer between season 1 and season 2  
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Part 3 - Fishtastic  
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Angela found Jack in the experiment lab. He'd pushed all of Zack's equipment to the side and was digging through a container of sludge with a tiny shovel and a pair of tongs.

She toed the door open carefully; trying not to upset the perfect balance she had between her sketchpad, pencils, sandwich, and the skull of their most recent John Doe.

Jack heard her struggle with the door and was quickly over to help, holding it open and gently rescuing the skull from the crook of her arm. He took in the rest of the objects she was holding and raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, what's with the sudden migration?"

"Dr. Saroyan brought in sushi for lunch. She and 'Zackaroni' are sharing it. The entire main corridor smells like fish." Her voice was laced with irritation, disgust, and a touch of petulance. She walked over to the counter and lay her items down next to Jack's things.

"What about your office?"

"Fishtastic. I figured I'd be safe here. I can always trust this place to provide an.. interesting aroma." She was sorting through the pencils she'd brought when she paused and glanced back at Jack.

"I'm not going to get in the way am I?" She asked, her tone uncertain.

"No, not at all." Jack smiled to himself and shut the door.

"In fact, stay as long as you like, I know how fish smells can linger."

Angela huffed.

"Yeah, tell me about it. Some people have no consideration."

"Yeah, what were they thinking? We like our rotting corpse smell just fine." Jack teased, placing the skull in front of her. Angela narrowed her eyes and stuck her tongue out, clearly not amused. He quickly smothered his grin and sat back down to work.

Angela flipped open her sketchpad to a drawing she'd already begun. She reached out to adjust the angle of the skull before her and picked up one of her many pencils.

"Any luck with a face?" Jack asked, conversationally.

"Not yet. I was having trouble focusing, I almost gave him a set of gills."

Jack laughed.

"That bad, huh?"

"Oh you have no idea. It smells like somebody found Nemo out there."

For a while they sat in a companionable silence, each working on their respective tasks. Jack occasionally glanced over to admire her profile and take in the way she worried her lower lip when she was really focused, but he managed to keep most of his attention on his work and not let her catch his casual observance. Angela was starting to really fill out her drawing and a face was coming to life on the page.

When she was ready to get started on adding in the detailing that would allow them to get a match on the face she sat back, laying her pencil down, to take a moment to review the piece in it's entirety and double check with the skull before moving on. She picked up her sandwich and was mid-chew when she hesitated and crinkled her nose. She swallowed with some difficulty and turned to Jack.

"Hodgins, what _is_ the smell in here?"

"Tape worm excrement and remains." He replied blandly, barely sparing her a glance.

"Oh.. Lovely." With a look of disgust and sigh of inevitability, she pushed her lunch away.

"Wormtastic." Jack quipped with a grin. Angela stared at him, her face expressionless. Off her unimpressed look he straightened up.

"..Wormderful?" He tried again, leaning over to nudge her gently. She blinked slowly and Jack watched expectantly, a slight flush of embarrassment colouring his cheeks. Finally her face broke into a smile and Angela laughed despite herself. Jack breathed a small sigh of relief.

"You are such a dork." She teased. Jack smiled broadly and locked his gaze with hers.

"A small price to pay for seeing you smile like that."

Suddenly things in the lab seemed to get very quiet. Angela broke the stare first, turning her attention to her collection of pencils and picking one up to twirl it between her nervous fingers. Jack audibly drew in a deep breath and tapped his fingers against the counter.

"Right.. Back to work."

Angela nodded earnestly, despite the fact that he was no longer watching her.

"Yeah, I just have a bit more detail work on this face and then I should have something to turn over to Dr. Saroyan."

"Good, good. Yeah, I've gone through about seventy-five percent of this gunk, but haven't found anything yet."

They silently went back to work and the only sound was the scratch of pencil on paper and the skittish shifting of bodies. For a few uncomfortable moments neither one was very productive; Angela accidentally shaded into the man's eye, and Jack somehow managed to loose the little shovel he was using to the container of sludge, having to dig it out with the tongs and clean it off before starting again. However, the awkwardness soon wore off as they both became involved in their work once again.

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Angela was essentially done with the drawing, but she couldn't get the shading quite right. It was enough that it might hinder an accurate identification and she didn't want to leave any room for error in one of the first pieces she was to turn over to their new boss. She glanced around for something to use to smudge the crosshairs she'd sketched in across the cheekbones and under the eye and spied a rag sitting on the counter next to Jack. He was engrossed in his work, picking away at some small, solid object he'd found in the sludge.

She was already mid-reach when she realized Jack was also going for the rag. He was too caught up in his work to look up for the location of the rag and his hand was waywardly snaking through the air. Angela tried to avoid him, but when she dodged he dove and their hands inadvertently crashed together, catching them both by surprise. For a split second their fingers tangled awkwardly and they both just stared in silent fascination.

Angela had seen it coming and she was the first to react, pulling her hand back quickly with a nervous laugh. She smiled apologetically, colour rising in her cheeks.

"Sorry. I was just going to use the cloth to touch up a few spots on my sketch.. but I can just use my finger." She gestured to where Jack's hand was now loosely trapping the rag to the table.

Jack glanced from his hand to her face. He looked thoughtful for a moment, and then smiled lightly.

"Trust me when I say you do not want to use this rag. Unless of course that was just a ploy to hold hands, in which case.." He turned his hand palm up and waggled his fingers at her.

"Anytime, babe."

Angela's gaze slipped from his face to stare at his hand, her fingers twitching slightly. She opened her mouth to speak and then broke into a soft chuckle. She looked up with a raised eyebrow.

"Does that sort of thing ever actually work? I mean, even when you don't preface it with forty five minutes of digging through feces?" She asked, casually sidestepping his remark.

Jack didn't miss a beat.

"You mean like, 'did it hurt, falling from heaven?', and 'do you have a map? 'cause I keep getting lost in your eyes'? That sort of thing? Because you'd be surprised.."

Angela laughed.

"You don't actually use those do you?"

Jack smiled.

"No, but sometimes I pass them along to Zack, unleash him on the world, and make a night of it."

Angela clicked her tongue against the back of her teeth, making a disapproving noise.

"Oh Hodgins, Zack looks up to you!"

"Which is why it works so well."

She looked as though she might protest until Jack waved his arms in surrender.

"Hey, I'm just kidding! Not that those lines would be any worse than the ones he comes up with on his own.." He trailed off, standing up from his stool. He nodded to the cabinet behind him to answer Angela's questioning look.

"I'll get you a clean rag." He offered, turning away from her. With his back turned, Angela took the opportunity to straighten her hair and stretch her arms out, shaking away some of her stiffness and jitters. After a moment Jack glanced back causing her to straighten up quickly. He gave her an odd look and then finished locking up the cupoard, talking over his shoulder as he went.

"You don't have to worry, I'd never try a line on you. I can see it now, some guy being all 'God must be sad to have lost such an angel..' and then you'd say 'well, my name _is_ Angela..' It's too ironic, not to mention too run-of-the-mill. No, for you I'd have to do something different."

"Oh really?" Angela paused, but when Jack didn't elaborate she couldn't help but question him.

"Like what?"

When he turned back from the cupboard, now carrying a rag in his hand, Angela watched as a slow smile spread across his face. A kind of lazy smile filled with confidence and mystery and clearly meant to charm. Unbeknownst to herself, Angela's lips parted to take in a quick breath and she brought one hand up to lightly tease the skin of her throat.

"I'll guess you'll just have to wait and see." He murmured, his voice low and rumbling.

As he passed the rag to her their hands collided again. This time more gracefully, their fingers brushing lightly as they slowly pulled apart.

Angela fiddled with the cloth and looked up, a wry smile of acceptance on her lips.

"I guess I will." She agreed softly, daring to hold Jack's steady gaze.

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_A/N: This is the last part of the series - hope you enjoyed it._


End file.
